December 11, 2009 - On Thursday before the Senate Committee on Commerce,
Science and Transportation, Subcommittee on Aviation on the Federal
Aviation Administration’s Safety Programs, Federal Aviation
Administrator, Randy Babbitt expressed some reluctance in changing FAA
regulations on the number of flight hours required in order to be a
co-pilot flying with the airlines.

“We do not believe that simply raising quantity — the total number of
hours of flying time or experience — without regard to the quality and
nature of that time and experience is an appropriate method by which to
improve a pilot’s proficiency in commercial operations. We are also
considering other options. For example, a newly-certificated commercial
pilot with the minimum number of hours might be limited to certain
activities until he or she could accumulate the type of experience
deemed potentially necessary to serve as a first officer for an air
carrier.”

At present a pilot
with the airlines is required to have an Airline Transport Pilot
Certificate (ATP) and in order to qualify for the ATP license the pilot
must first have logged 1200 hours of flight time. A co-pilot only
requires a Commercial Pilot certificate. In order to qualify for the
Commercial Pilot Certificate the pilot must have first logged 250 hours
of flight time.

“We are looking at ways to enhance the existing process for pilot
certification to identify discrete areas where an individual pilot
receives and successfully completes training, thus establishing
operational experience in areas such as the multi-pilot environment,
exposure to icing, high altitude operations and other areas common to
commercial air carrier operations. We view this option as being more
targeted than merely increasing the number of total flight hours
required because it will be obvious to the carrier what skills an
individual pilot has, rather than relying on an assumption that a
certain number of hours has resulted in a comprehensive set of skills.”

The review of pilot training comes on the heels of a crash on February
12, 2009. It involved Colgan Air Inc., Bombardier Dash 8-Q400, N200WQ,
d.b.a. Continental Connection Flight 3407, crashed during an instrument
approach to runway 23 at the Buffalo-Niagara International Airport
(BUF), Buffalo, New York.
The crash site was approximately 5 nautical miles northeast of the
airport in Clarence Center, New York, and mostly confined to one
residential house. The four flight crew and 45 passengers were fatally
injured and the aircraft was destroyed by impact forces and post crash
fire.

An investigation of the crash revealed pilot fatigue and lack of pilot
training. It appears both pilots did not recognize icing had taking
place on the surface of the aircraft. Both pilots lacked proper training
on a “stick pusher”, stall recovery, etc.

Back in May the NTSB voted to conduct a public hearing on this accident
and Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and FAA Administrator Randy
Babbitt announced he had ordered FAA inspectors to immediately focus
inspection on training programs to ensure that regional airlines are
complying with federal regulations.